Biography
Paired with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers formed one half of cinema’s most celebrated dance partnership while simultaneously building a separate reputation as a dramatic performer that culminated in a Best Actress Oscar. Virginia McMath entered the world on July 16, 1911, in Independence, Missouri, then accompanied her recently divorced mother—a screenwriter—to Hollywood before she could walk. At six, Rogers received an offer of a studio contract that her mother declined; the family subsequently settled in Fort Worth, where the young performer began taking parts in local stage productions and musical revues.
Victory in a Charleston competition during 1926 prompted her mother to judge her prepared for professional work, so Rogers entered vaudeville leading the act billed as “Ginger and the Redheads.” Marriage to Jack Pepper in 1928 prompted a name change to “Ginger and Pepper.” She next journeyed to New York to sing with Paul Ash’s Orchestra, and after completing the Rudy Vallée short Campus Sweethearts she secured a part in the 1929 Broadway musical Top Speed.
Strong notices on Broadway drew Paramount’s interest, resulting in her screen debut in 1930’s Young Man of Manhattan and an early identification with quick-witted flapper roles; she later shared the stage with Ethel Merman in Girl Crazy. While under contract at Paramount she spent days at the Astoria lot and evenings back on Broadway, completing The Sap from Syracuse, Queen High, and Honor Among Lovers under that exhausting schedule. Rogers requested release from the agreement, yet soon signed with RKO and, once her New York run concluded, returned to Hollywood for 1931’s The Tip-Off and The Suicide Fleet.
The 1932 release Carnival Boat met with indifference, prompting RKO to drop her; she then worked freelance, sharing the screen with Joe E. Brown in The Tenderfoot and starring in Monogram’s thriller The Thirteenth Guest. The landmark 1933 musical 42nd Street placed her on the threshold of stardom, after which she appeared in Warner Bros.’ Gold Diggers of 1933. Returning to RKO, she headlined Professional Sweetheart, whose strong box-office showing earned her a long-term contract and led to subsequent pictures such as A Shriek in the Night and Sitting Pretty.
RKO next placed her in the musical Flying Down to Rio opposite Delores del Rio, though the newcomer Astaire, newly arrived from Broadway, captured the majority of attention. The pair did not reteam until 1934’s The Gay Divorcee, a substantial success, yet Rogers continued to resist being viewed solely as a musical performer and accepted the dramatic role in Romance in Manhattan. The popularity of 1935’s Roberta with Astaire nonetheless underscored audience preference for their joint musical vehicles, and she attained major stardom through further collaborations including Top Hat, 1936’s Follow the Fleet, Swing Time, and Shall We Dance. Even without Astaire she succeeded in musical vehicles, and in 1937 she and Katharine Hepburn delivered an acclaimed joint performance in Stage Door.
Following 1938’s Carefree, Rogers and Astaire made one last picture together, the next year’s The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, before parting ways; she still hoped to emphasize dramatic work, but first delivered a memorable comic turn in Bachelor Mother. In 1940 she portrayed the title character in Kitty Foyle and received an Academy Award; the following year she starred in Garson Kanin’s comedy Tom, Dick and Harry. After an episode of Tales of Manhattan opposite Henry Fonda, she signed a three-picture contract with Paramount that allowed her to headline the 1944 musical Lady in the Dark while also appearing in Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor and Leo McCarey’s Once Upon a Honeymoon.
A string of modestly received films followed, among them 1945’s Weekend at the Waldorf—for which she earned nearly $300,000, placing her among the highest-paid women in the country—1946’s Magnificent Doll, and the 1947 screwball comedy It Had to Be You. Rogers joined the short-lived Enterprise company but found no suitable project there; instead she reunited with Astaire at MGM for 1949’s The Barkleys of Broadway, their first color film. The picture achieved considerable success and revived her career, after which she completed two Warner Bros. features: the 1950 romance Perfect Strangers and the social drama Storm Warning.
After 1951’s The Groom Wore Spurs she appeared in three 1952 Fox comedies—We’re Not Married, Monkey Business, and Dreamboat—that dissipated the momentum generated by her Astaire reunion, a setback neither 1953’s Forever Female nor the following year’s Black Widow could reverse. In Britain she filmed Beautiful Stranger, then returned for the brisk 1955 melodrama Tight Spot. With the 1957 farce Oh, Men! Oh, Women! her Hollywood career effectively concluded, prompting subsequent appearances in stock productions of Bell Book and Candle, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Annie Get Your Gun.
In 1959 Rogers traveled to Britain for the television musical Carissima; several years later she starred in a well-received television special and earned favorable notices replacing Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly. She also headlined Mame in London’s West End, earning more than 250,000 pounds—the largest fee ever paid a performer by the London theatrical community. In 1965 she reached an agreement with the Jamaican government to produce films in the Caribbean, yet production difficulties arose and the sole completed project emerged as Quick, Let’s Get Married. That same year she portrayed Harlow in her final screen appearance. By the 1970s she regularly toured with a nightclub act, headlining Radio City Music Hall in 1980. One of her last major engagements was a tour of Anything Goes; in 1991 she published the autobiography Ginger: My Story. Rogers died on April 25, 1995.
Victory in a Charleston competition during 1926 prompted her mother to judge her prepared for professional work, so Rogers entered vaudeville leading the act billed as “Ginger and the Redheads.” Marriage to Jack Pepper in 1928 prompted a name change to “Ginger and Pepper.” She next journeyed to New York to sing with Paul Ash’s Orchestra, and after completing the Rudy Vallée short Campus Sweethearts she secured a part in the 1929 Broadway musical Top Speed.
Strong notices on Broadway drew Paramount’s interest, resulting in her screen debut in 1930’s Young Man of Manhattan and an early identification with quick-witted flapper roles; she later shared the stage with Ethel Merman in Girl Crazy. While under contract at Paramount she spent days at the Astoria lot and evenings back on Broadway, completing The Sap from Syracuse, Queen High, and Honor Among Lovers under that exhausting schedule. Rogers requested release from the agreement, yet soon signed with RKO and, once her New York run concluded, returned to Hollywood for 1931’s The Tip-Off and The Suicide Fleet.
The 1932 release Carnival Boat met with indifference, prompting RKO to drop her; she then worked freelance, sharing the screen with Joe E. Brown in The Tenderfoot and starring in Monogram’s thriller The Thirteenth Guest. The landmark 1933 musical 42nd Street placed her on the threshold of stardom, after which she appeared in Warner Bros.’ Gold Diggers of 1933. Returning to RKO, she headlined Professional Sweetheart, whose strong box-office showing earned her a long-term contract and led to subsequent pictures such as A Shriek in the Night and Sitting Pretty.
RKO next placed her in the musical Flying Down to Rio opposite Delores del Rio, though the newcomer Astaire, newly arrived from Broadway, captured the majority of attention. The pair did not reteam until 1934’s The Gay Divorcee, a substantial success, yet Rogers continued to resist being viewed solely as a musical performer and accepted the dramatic role in Romance in Manhattan. The popularity of 1935’s Roberta with Astaire nonetheless underscored audience preference for their joint musical vehicles, and she attained major stardom through further collaborations including Top Hat, 1936’s Follow the Fleet, Swing Time, and Shall We Dance. Even without Astaire she succeeded in musical vehicles, and in 1937 she and Katharine Hepburn delivered an acclaimed joint performance in Stage Door.
Following 1938’s Carefree, Rogers and Astaire made one last picture together, the next year’s The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, before parting ways; she still hoped to emphasize dramatic work, but first delivered a memorable comic turn in Bachelor Mother. In 1940 she portrayed the title character in Kitty Foyle and received an Academy Award; the following year she starred in Garson Kanin’s comedy Tom, Dick and Harry. After an episode of Tales of Manhattan opposite Henry Fonda, she signed a three-picture contract with Paramount that allowed her to headline the 1944 musical Lady in the Dark while also appearing in Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor and Leo McCarey’s Once Upon a Honeymoon.
A string of modestly received films followed, among them 1945’s Weekend at the Waldorf—for which she earned nearly $300,000, placing her among the highest-paid women in the country—1946’s Magnificent Doll, and the 1947 screwball comedy It Had to Be You. Rogers joined the short-lived Enterprise company but found no suitable project there; instead she reunited with Astaire at MGM for 1949’s The Barkleys of Broadway, their first color film. The picture achieved considerable success and revived her career, after which she completed two Warner Bros. features: the 1950 romance Perfect Strangers and the social drama Storm Warning.
After 1951’s The Groom Wore Spurs she appeared in three 1952 Fox comedies—We’re Not Married, Monkey Business, and Dreamboat—that dissipated the momentum generated by her Astaire reunion, a setback neither 1953’s Forever Female nor the following year’s Black Widow could reverse. In Britain she filmed Beautiful Stranger, then returned for the brisk 1955 melodrama Tight Spot. With the 1957 farce Oh, Men! Oh, Women! her Hollywood career effectively concluded, prompting subsequent appearances in stock productions of Bell Book and Candle, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Annie Get Your Gun.
In 1959 Rogers traveled to Britain for the television musical Carissima; several years later she starred in a well-received television special and earned favorable notices replacing Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly. She also headlined Mame in London’s West End, earning more than 250,000 pounds—the largest fee ever paid a performer by the London theatrical community. In 1965 she reached an agreement with the Jamaican government to produce films in the Caribbean, yet production difficulties arose and the sole completed project emerged as Quick, Let’s Get Married. That same year she portrayed Harlow in her final screen appearance. By the 1970s she regularly toured with a nightclub act, headlining Radio City Music Hall in 1980. One of her last major engagements was a tour of Anything Goes; in 1991 she published the autobiography Ginger: My Story. Rogers died on April 25, 1995.